Man & Nature: I’m reminded of this line from The Mote in God’s Eye: “…the physical features of Mote Prime are of some interest, particularly to ecologists concerned with the effects of intelligent life on planetography…”.

Apparently judges can base sentences upon charges of which a convict was acquitted. Weird…and a bit disturbing….

Curse of the Class of 2009: “Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads.”

Defining Away Obesity: “with obesity now ubiquitous people have defined “heavy” as the new normal in human physiology, thus making it no longer a problem worth reporting. A lovely example of defining things away.”

“…surveys of married adults suggest that opposites attract when it comes to emotional reactions toward spending. That is, “tightwads,” who generally spend less than they would ideally like to spend, and “spendthrifts,” who generally spend more than they would ideally like to spend, tend to marry each other.”

Stressing Frannie: While it’s certainly worthwhile to worry about Frannie’s risks, it’s unclear to me how Frannie’s prime book matches up against the stress-tested banks’ ones. Only if their mortgage books are sufficiently similar (e.g., same proportions of mortgages originated during the crap underwriting years of 2004-2007) can one apply the same loss projections.